Where to start… Unlike Iceland, where I’d be (at the time) moving around the island, I’d planned to stay in Prague. I initially started with the Lonely Planet Pocket Prague for trying to plan days of things to do. However, since I was going to be geocaching-focused, I used the CacheTur.No tool for laying out routes. For example, one sub-trip had me going down to Vysehrad (south), another hitting the Charles Bridge early, before crowds came in. ...
When my daughter was in college, I’d periodically visit to check up and take her on a Target trip to ensure she had all the household comforts needed. Although there was scheduled flight service to the college town, it was generally cheaper and quicker taking the nonstop from Seattle to either Chicago O’Hare or Milwaukee Mitchell, renting a car, and driving the rest of the way to the college town. And being one who likes to wander, I’d also scout out geocaching opportunities. On a particular trip in 2018, shortly after I started a new job and had no accrued vacation time, I flew after work on Friday, arriving to my motel after midnight. I intended to get up at the ass crack Saturday morning, meet her for breakfast, spend time with her (as she was available), then drive back Sunday afternoon to Milwaukee and fly home. ...
I made my third trip to Washington, DC, but the first time I’d spent any time for vacation. Some of the things we saw during the trip: Smithsonian Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum is one of the most popular museums for a good reason, and you absolutely must get (free) timed tickets for. Part of it has been under reconstruction for a few years, with some items moved to another facility. However, there’s still a lot to see ranging from the early history of flight to planetary exploration. The photo above is an F1 engine from Apollo 11, recovered by a Bezos expedition and donated to the museum. The immensity is readily apparent, as was the hand assembly. ******* Allow 3-4 hours, Free, timed-tickets essential**. (There’s plenty to see, it just gets overwhelming with crowds.) ...
I just returned from ten days in Washington DC, where I got around solelyby walking and public transit (bus and train). It was awesomely efficient. One of the more difficult things to suss out priorto visiting was the use of the SmarTrip app. The short summary: you don’t need it if you’re a tourist. Just use the Wallet function. The app does three things: Lets you buy a multi-day pass. The pricing was extremely confusing with multiple agencies and “unlimited.” I’m sure this would make more sense to a local, but it was simpler and cheaper to just buy the fares we used. ...
Belatedly following up with Part 1, my remaining time Prague had a day-trip to Bohemian Switzerland National Park, Bastei Bridge, and a lot of geocaching throughout the city. (Prague geocachers bring their A-game. I went home finding 132 caches in Iceland, 71 in Czechia and 5 in Germany.) To blow through my remaining CZK, I made a trip to a grocery store and bought enough candy and beer that I needed a second suitcase. ...
After my time in Iceland, I spent a few days to see Prague, which is renowned for its history and the excellent geocaching community. It did not disappoint. Day 1 Summary:_ ****Fly from Keflavik, arriving early afternoon. Check into the apartment rental. If time permitted, exchange currency, then wander to the meeting point for the Taste of Prague food tour. Sleep._ The American version of airports. The night before, I dropped off my rental car and walked to the airport hotel two blocks from Keflavik International. Thinking the US airport experience was the norm, specifically, a lot of time-wasted because of security theater, I planned to be up and out the door by 4:30 a.m. to do all the security hoops for my 7 a.m. flight. ...
Where to start… (extensively updated 2023-10-26) I initially asked a couple of geocaching friends what they did, and it was evident their visits were stopovers onto somewhere else. It is possible do visit many sites from day-trips while staying in Reykjavik. However, this was my travel destination. While doing a couple of day trips from Reykjavik is fine, the traveling back and forth eats up a lot of valuable vacationing. ...
… must come to an end. For my last day, I had an early reservation at the Sky Lagoon, which is an Oceanside geothermal lagoon closer into town. I just could not get myself interested in the Blue Lagoon on this visit. Although I brought my swimsuit, I ended up renting one so I wouldn’t have to deal with a wet garment in my suitcase. Sky Lagoon’s “The Ritual” is eloquently explained on their website, but I would summarize as alternating between hotter and colder forms of water. Towards the end, you rub oily salt on your body, then walk into a steam furnace until you absolutely cannot take it anymore, grope for the exit, and take a normal shower. The transitions, especially hot to cold, are surprisingly invigorating. ...
Today, my last night in Reykjavik, I spent the morning geocaching around Petrin, checking out the ruins of Oskjuhlid Hill, a WW2 relic. The walk from downtown was a lot longer than I had planned for, but it was basically Seattle weather, and nice to be outdoors: Stairs to ??? WW2 structure Bunker On the way back, I was enjoying checking out the local street murals. The cat-stronaut is one of my favorites, but there are several solid works. My favorite ...
There’s some definitely extremely NSFW content here involving an uncharacteristically large number of dick pics. At least twenty. Oops, sorry for the Dick pic, source: Wikipedia. To avoid the naughty bits appearing at the top of someone’s internet feed, I’m going to complain first. After last night’s Food and Drink Walk, I ran back to the hotel to dispose of some beer I no longer needed and change into extra warm clothes for another tour that would take us out to see the Northern Lights. It was serendipitous that I’d scheduled this specific day because we were between storms and it was going to be cold and clear, with no interference from the moon, and a Kp index of 4. Although we were successful at seeing aurora, I would not recommend doing this in a tour group. ...